Vectrex news: 3/17/2012
Here is a massive amount of Vectrex news for March 17, 2012: New pages There have been several additions to this wiki since the last news was put up, several of which are new pages that go back to the original Vectrex days! These include a page being created for the Passport catalog, along with Milton Bradley, 3D Imager pages, and a poll in regards to Vectrex collecting, and for the modern stuff, a Sectis review was added (scroll down to the Links tab to read) and Revival Studios has now become a full page entry, as it had started out as a stub several weeks before. Vectrex Museum has been busy... After many months of being offline, the Vectrex database (note: that's the new link!) was finally rescued and brought back online by the Vectrex Museum! Some pages are still in the works to being brought back, along with new pages that will go up with the next update, but the majority of its content is back, finally! Also as was hinted with the previous news, the new VecApp was released as well, which can be used to find Vectrex items (hopefully) when you’re out on the road, should you have a mobile device that can run it. And due to the end of 2012 marking the 30th anniversary of the Vectrex being released in the U. S. (hard to believe, eh?), in the News section of the Vectrex Museum, history is being covered all year long in a series, so keep your eye out for that. There is also one last big item that the Vectrex Museum has done, but we’re going to save that for last here :) Spike’s Big Vectrex Page also back in action And along with the Vectrex database being back, after a few years of being inactive, Spike’s Big Vectrex Page has finally updated with new game and Vectrex-related web site info. New FURY games There’s been many new announcements lately in regards to FURY releases, one being the sequel to I, Cyborg, which is I, Cyborg: Me Against the World, which is set for release in 2013. Tail Gunner has been given an October release date, and the long-delayed Warrior is set for a June release. As per usual, stay tuned to FURY’s website for more news and screenshots! New Vectrex videos Two interesting videos have come out since the last news release, one being from welove80s2, who demonstrated his Vecdrive controller in action with Vaboom!/Vectrace and Hyperchase. And it’s not only a modified Atari 2600 paddle controller, but a switch was also installed so creator Keith Horn could choose what game variations to play on Hyperchase as well! And another video is a slideshow of several Vectrex rarities, such as the 3D Imager and Light Pen, along with the Star Ship Vectrex (which photos of it were circulated like a year or so before), showing a (presumably) custom white paint job, along with prerequisite grip bars on the sides of the monitor (these ARE standard issue for all space ship cockpits, right?). Wiki totals back (sorta) As was reported a while back in a previous news segment (which we’ll admit we’re being too lazy to look up which one :P ), in only a few months of existence, this wiki had a little over 1200 or 1300 views (although some could be so-called “views” from bots, but what have you). Then unfortunately the totals became frozen, which was reported to Wikia in regards to that. Months later the problem still had not been fixed. As it turned out, with one of the many changes Wikia did to all of their sites, some new code interfered with this function, so a workaround was put on hold for quite some time. Well, just the other week when we tried logging in using the new Wikia skin (as some functions do not work in MonoBook, as it is no longer supported), our totals had come back, which were at 4500 views, if we remember correctly (that will be explained next...). However, with logging back in once more using the new skin to see what the totals are so we could report them for this news digest, they had reset once more, as they reset on a weekly basis :| So who knows if the total views PERIOD of this – or any other Wikia wiki – will ever return. We’ll contact Wikia once more in regards to this and keep you posted. And last but definitely not least... And finally -– along with getting back to the Vectrex Museum -- while he was in a Vectrex-saving mood with the Vectrex database, Vectrex Museum curator Oliver also generously offered to back up this very wiki, which I accepted. Although mostly minor, in a way the backup wiki is actually an improvement over this original, as all of the pages that have infoboxes are now uniform, as they are all close to the original Vectrex game box gray (ok, so technically the wiki color is silver, but it looks more gray to me!). Granted, I just need to edit/swap out a few last of the others on here so they all match (not counting the one on the Spike page, as that old infobox color is going to stay since it’s closer to the purple Spike overlay anyway), but I haven’t bothered. The backup wiki is also more streamlined, due to there not being pages for separate related gaming terms (more on that later), as they are all now on just one page. However, there won’t be any polls; I don’t see much of a reason to move them over, as people shouldn’t be bothered with asking for them to vote again. If something were to happen with the Wikia company and this wiki along with it (note: no, there isn’t a rumor of anything such as this happening that we know of, this whole matter was just a precaution by Oliver to back up this site), I can probably just recreate most of them from memory if I have to. This and all other future news items will also appear there, but not any past ones, as I don’t see the point of transferring those, really. All the stuff is old news now, and didn’t happen, since the backup wiki didn’t exist back then. There probably will not be any featured articles either. Although with what few people contributed articles other than myself (so this also doesn’t really matter), the other wiki currently has no coding for any references, so those can be left out (with this wiki it’s automatic). Also, any gaming terms that appear in the infobox have just one page now, being Terminology (note: this links to the new page on the backup wiki). So there will be some slight recoding for that, although it cuts down on the bulk, rather than each gaming term (Single player, Freeware, etc.) having it’s own separate page. Tabbers don’t work the same way as on here, so pages that had them (such as games that have reviews and strategy guides) were just moved to the Discussion pages of those games (such as with Mine Storm and Vector Vaders, for instance). Any authors of pages on here (other than myself) needs to move a copy of the page(s) they made onto the backup wiki, unless they post on my discussion page giving me permission to do move any of them if they wish. I’d rather not get credit on a History page for something that I didn’t do, so this is a notice for all authors to provide a copy of any pages they did onto the backup wiki. Every page I either totally created or expanded on has been copied from this wiki except for one (which I need to update anyway). Below are pages (even stubs) I did not do that need to be put on the backup wiki: *'Game/hardware pages': (5/20 edit: these have all been done) *'Vectrex personnel and miscellaneous pages': (5/20 edit: these have all been done) There are a few ways of going about with moving these pages; one, have myself move them, or contact Oliver for an account on his wiki so you can get credit for the articles. Unfortunately his wiki is an independent one, and not affiliated with the Wikia company, so if you want to backup/get credit for your articles on his wiki then you’ll have to register for a new account over there. (Sorry for any inconvenience for this.) Just note that any photos you included with your articles will have to be re-saved on your hard drive and reuploaded on the backup wiki, along with the article. And of course, with any future articles people write on here, again, either shoot a copy of it onto the backup wiki or put in a request on my discussion page and I will move it for you. The deadline for people copying their pages onto the back wiki is May 17, giving everyone 60 days to do so, which I’ll then move them myself if this hasn’t been done. (5/20 edit: the time frame for people to put up a copy of whatever they write onto the backup wiki is now 60 days per page.) However, there could be a problem with creating new pages; usually you just type in the name of a new article in the Search box at left, then click on the title that is in red to take you to the new page when the wiki searches for it but can't find it. For some reason search pages now come up blank for me, even when clearing the internet cache and switching to another browser. If it works for others, fine, but if not, do a search for something like Bedlam, and in the address bar where it reads "title=", backspace through "Bedlam" and change it to the title of your article. You should then be taken to a page where it asks you if you want to edit it, since it has no content, so click on that and copy and paste away from your original article from here to there. Thanks for you attention in this matter and sorry again for any inconvenience this may cause. Darrylb500 03:54, March 17, 2012 (UTC) Founder/head admin Vectrex Museum wiki backup Well, that’s a wrap for this news edition, this has been a big one! Category:Vectrex news Category:Homebrewer Category:Homebrew Category:Vectrex games Category:Miscellaneous Vectrex Category:Hardware Category:D. I. Y.